Humanism, Secularism, Feminism

Taslima Nasreen

Taslima Nasreen, an award-winning writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasreen’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller’s list.

Taslima Nasreen was born in Bangladesh. She started writing when she was 13. Her writings won the hearts of people across the border and she landed with the prestigious literary award Ananda from India in 1992. Taslima won The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament in 1994. She received the Kurt Tucholsky Award from Swedish PEN, the Simone de Beauvoir Award and Human Rights Award from Government of France, Le Prix de l' Edit de Nantes from the city of Nantes, France, Academy prize from the Royal Academy of arts, science and literature from Belgium. She is a Humanist Laureate in The International Academy for Humanism,USA. She won Distinguished Humanist Award from International Humanist and Ethical Union, Free-thought Heroine award from Freedom From Religion foundation, USA., IBKA award, Germany,and Feminist Press Award, USA . She got the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh prize for Promotion of the Tolerance and Non-violence in 2005. She received the Medal of honor of Lyon. She got honorary citizenship from Paris, Nantes, Lyon, Metz, Thionville, Esch etc. Taslima was awarded the Condorcet-Aron Prize at the “Parliament of the French Community of Belgium” in Brussels and Ananda literary award again in 2000.

Bestowed with honorary doctorates from Gent University and UCL in Belgium, and American University of Paris and Paris Diderot University in France, she has addressed gatherings in major venues of the world like the European Parliament, National Assembly of France, Universities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc. She got fellowships as a research scholar at Harvard and New York Universities. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the USA in 2009.

Taslima has written 35 books in Bengali, which includes poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different languages. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh. Because of her thoughts and ideas she has been banned, blacklisted and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. She has been prevented by the authorities from returning to her country since 1994, and to West Bengal since 2007.

EVENTS

You ban women from singing, laughing, going outside without veils, because you believe men are bad.You insult men.

Muftis are misogynists. If they truly believe in religion, they have no other alternative but to force themselves to become woman-haters.
Grand Mufti in Jammu and Kashmir issued fatwa against music in February this year. He said, ‘music is un-Islamic’.

Leading religious scholar of Jammu and Kashmir, Grand Mufti Mohammad Bashiruddin, on Sunday issued fatwa against the region’s only all-girls rock band run by the teenage girls and against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for extending support to them.

The Grand Mufti termed the three teenage girls, who formed the rock band, ‘non serious’, saying such an approach leads to ‘gang rape’. “Shameful incidents like gang rapes, that happened in Hindustan recently, are a result of all this. It happens when women are given freedom to roam around, sing and dance,” Bashiruddin told The Tribune.
The fatwa — an advisory by an Islamic scholar, who has knowledge of theology, religious jurisprudence and law — has been issued by the “Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat” headed by Bashiruddin.

The Grand Mufti asked the girls not to get impressed with support from the political leadership. Bashiruddin also criticised Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for extending solidarity with the teenage girls, terming it as “unnecessary support”. “It will be unfortunate if our society leaves the right path and gets entangled in musical instruments,” the fatwa read.

Omar had yesterday extended support to the rock band after it emerged that the teenage girls have decided to shut their band following a barrage of abuses targeting them and their families.

The girls’ band had come to limelight last December when the three 16-year-old girls made their first and the last public performance at the “Battle of Bands” competition here, where they battled against other bands consisting of boys.

And then again the same stuff that we hear whenever women refuse to be shackled that women are nourishing Western culture. Whatever Muftis do not like, is Western, and Western is always bad.

Referring to the girls’ band, Bashiruddin said, “Such non-serious acts are the first steps towards national disaster”. Criticism also poured in from the hardline separatists led by Syed Ali Geelani, who termed the support extended by the Chief Minister to the rock band as “tragic and surprising”. “There are some values (which) a citizen has to adopt to safeguard the ethical, moral and religious traditions. Kashmir being a sacred place of saintly persons, there is no room to nourish western culture and immoral values,” hardline Hurriyat’s spokesman Ayaz Akbar said.

Though it distanced itself from the threats issued against the rock band, Hurriyat said parents of these girls should have ‘rectified’ their behaviour. “No noble family will allow their girls to choose dancing as a profession which is a thing of pleasure for strangers,” Hurriyat spokesman said.

After the fatwa was issued, Muslim girls who had their own all-girls rock band had to stop singing. They were banned.

But Mufti enjoyed men’s music. It is alright if men sing. Then music is not anymore un-Islamic. It is only un-Islamic when women sing, because women’s soft and nice voices must not be heard by men who are not their close relatives.

The Mufti is not pleased about women being on Facebook to make friends and is definitely against them uploading pictures on the social networking site.

“Women should not post pictures on Facebook or anywhere else on the Internet. This is un-Islamic,” he said.

A Maulana from the minority Shia sect too endorsed the Mufti’s views.

“Women are not allowed to show their faces to anyone apart from their ‘mehram’ (male kin like father and brothers). So posting pictures on Facebook is ‘haraam’ (banned),” Maulana Saif Abbas Naqvi said.

Muftis are against women playing music, women posting pictures on the internet, or women moving their butts. Muftis are not alone. Allah is with them. Allah asked women not to go in front of non-mahran men . If Allah knew about the internet, he would have advised women not to post their pictures on facebook or twitter.

Islam prohibits music. Women’s voices must not be heard by non-Mahran men or strangers. Allah (33:32) told prophet’s wives that they must not ‘soften’ their voices when they talk to male strangers, they should rather make their voices firm and rough. But why is this? Isn’t it very easy to guess! It is because male strangers might get sexual desire if they hear soft and beautiful voices of women.

Because singing requires “softening the voice” and since prophet’s wives are the role models for all women, women’s singing is forbidden in front of unrelated men.

Now, you can say everything Islam and Muftis say in very simple words and sentences so that everybody can understand,– ‘if women sing and if men hear women’s soft voices and if women’s faces and hairs are shown to public, or on the internet—men have no other alternative but to fuck those women, because men are so fucking assholes that they do not know how to control their sexual urges.’

Muftis actually insult men, not women, when they force women to wear veils, or prevent women from going outside home, or stop women from singing in public places. Banning on women proves that men are nothing but a bunch of rapists, their brains are made of dicks and their hearts are made of dicks.

Comments

Simplicity,blind easy belief and ignorance caused by lack of knowledge and no education due to circumstances are very fertile grounds for Islam to thrive, propagate and convert people in every ethnicity with ideas termed sharia far from being positive and constructive.Islam encourages communities of men with minds closed to all but twisted Islamic explanations by mean clerics and mullahs.
Only alert Active Conscience, built on knowledge through extensive readings,observations and interactions should be the way to decide the good and the badl.Men should realise that all religions,faiths,ideas,different cultism are man made and hearsay compiled,changed,added or deleted from time to time to suit those in favour of so called man made religions. Impulsive talk of divinity is just a talk.Life is a short journey through this planet.Nobody knows what happens when the journey ends.Only the good and the bad interactions stay behind as precepts to those journeying behind.

A woman or women gave birth to muftis, from an infant to manhood to what he or they are today. Can they deny the universal truth?
A woman is a mother. Keeping mother always in veil called ‘Burqa’ and away from sources of natural enlightenment is Islamic! It’s sheer meanness of the closed-minded Islamic radicals blind to effects of what is normal and positive.They better accept and follow the truth in their short journey.

“Such non-serious acts are the first steps towards national disaster”.

One could only hope. Wishful thinking and all. Like a bad Western teen movie. But the course of human history does turn on strange pivots, sometimes.

“Women should not post pictures on Facebook or anywhere else on the Internet. This is un-Islamic,” he said.

There was a time when any sort of photo, or any image of a living thing, tended to be seen as un-Islamic. Funny, that.

“Shameful incidents like gang rapes, that happened in Hindustan recently, are a result of all this. It happens when women are given freedom to roam around, sing and dance,” Bashiruddin told The Tribune.

Banning women proves that men are nothing but a bunch of rapists, their brains are made of dicks and their hearts are made of dicks.

Yup. Rape and other violence toward women is a result of enculturated and institutionalized sexism that people like Bashiruddin help to teach, excuse, and maintain. Dicks be lyin’ and hatin’ and usin’ women like toys. Don’t be a dick.

Muftis actually insult men, not women, when they force women to wear veils, or prevent women from going outside home, or stop women from singing in public places. Banning women proves that men are nothing but a bunch of rapists, their brains are made of dicks and their hearts are made of dicks.

Men truly are insulted by any form of repression of women (it’s not like men are winning). How could they not imagine they’re winning? They’re not interested in winning anything but their mother’s love and affection. It is illogic that suggests men made of dicks want women to cover up and remain out of sight. Men who are sons-of-bitches who are little bitches that only exist to please Mommy and make her proud suppress women, force them to wear the veil, burn schools for girls, and stay indoors where Mommy knows they belong.

Men made of dicks want clothes to come off.
Men looking to please their mother want clothes to go on.

Children reflect their mother’s value system; especially if the mother imposes her values onto them with her need for love. Then adopting her values becomes a survival situation and a matter of life or death (capture-bonding).

This type of curtailing of freedom to woman seen only in this particular community. Lack of unity among their woman folks is the main reason for this dilemma. Don’t forget that, a child can grow even without a father, but without a mother it is impossible. Woman should realise this and fight for their rights and freedom, and support will surely pore in. Religion should not be for rituals and traditions, but for overhaul development of the lot and to protect humanity and its freedom.

Now, you can say everything Islam and Muftis say in very simple words and sentences so that everybody can understand,– ‘if women sing and if men hear women’s soft voices and if women’s faces and hairs are shown to public, or on the internet—men have no other alternative but to fuck those women, because men are so fucking assholes that they do not know how to control their sexual urges.’

Unfortunately there is no shortage of western men who seem to confirm this view of men as a mere life support system for their dicks. You find them at every party, you find them in every bar and every time you log on to Twitter. Muslim extremists and western pickup artists, sexual harassers, perverts and sleazebags all seem to share this idea that women, merely by existing, are virtually forcing men to try and fuck them, and that men neither have the the ability nor any responsibility to resist. The only real difference seems to be that our local male pigs see women’s status as walking sex-dolls as a good thing because they just want to get laid as much as possible, whereas the Islamists see it as a temptation that must be resisted, which can only be achieved by keeping all women out of sight (since exercising any hint of restraint, discipline or self-control is obviously not an option…).

The notion that men cannot see or hear women without being overwhelmed by the compulsion to rape them is real misandry. Too bad the “men’s human rights activists” are too busy protecting men from satirical columns about what to do with their penises to do anything to combat this.

Abba really shocked me and reinforces the intolerance by some elements of the culture. Women are gloriously beautiful and their beauty should not be hidden. Abba is the type who is immoral and his language reflects a sinister depth of misogynism that is positively dumbfounding.

Haters hate and that is what they do, while abusing their own women and telling they are spiritual when they endure such abuse.

people 100 years go women didn’t have a lot of rights in the western world morons . i think you people need to read your own history before you start ciritasising some one else s belief system Western world was not paved with gold its always been and will continue to be manipulated towards outsiders. hey lets all jump on the Islamic band wagon we already have their leaders in our pocket lets get some of their people to talk against their own kind and make them famous so they can rack havoc in their country and we can control them at the same time continue our thousand year crusade silently . hey for 500 years we tried saying Islam was spread by sword but now they are getting to know their religion lets start something new so they can fight amongst them self’s . in order for you to understand the Qur’an you need the Hadith . don’t quote something you know nothing of. divide and conquer thats always been western moto. if you understand Shariah then you will know women are same as man except for their strength and make . Before you say something look at your own ideas and thoughts , they are no different to theirs but you can sugar coated better.

I wish I could take several airplanes to these insane countries and board all women, girls, and children and bring them over to the USA. No, it’s not perfect here but at least these people could have a chance for a more fulfilling, free life where they could live, laugh, love and explore their inner souls to truly discover who they are, and what they want out of life. These men make their lives a living hell. What’s going on here is true femicide!